Maybe like every once in a while feature a new area each month (or something) and during that time sponsors have the ability to ship a small gift to their child (going through the CO office of course) and that we would be required to pay a little extra if we wanted to do such a thing to help with shipment costs.

I know there are ramifications of doing such a thing and I trust that Compassion has considered such a thing very carefully.

You guys do a great job and I honestly feel that you know what is best for the kids, you guys, and even us!

I would love to see the family gift amount, currently $300.00 to be increased.

I know the reasons why that amount has been set up as I have discussed this several times with the compassion representatives.
I’d still like to think it could change due to all the countries experiencing the global food crisis.

I have one more idea to add to the mix.
I would also love to see the Compassion magazine come out more frequently, once a month. Again, I know this is not possible now, but the magazine is great and I have every one since I started receiving them in 2001.

I agree with Steve. My family gets 4 copies of everything shipped to our house(4 of us are sponsors) and since I keep up with things on the website I often get reminders/updates on things I have already done.

I realize that it may be complicated to send mailings to some sponsors and not others, but it could save on printing costs.

I too would like to get an updated photo yearly.

There should be a option on the website to be able to search by project number so that sponsors can look for children in the same project as current children. (I know there is a longer way to do this)

I would like to have a snap shot of the child with their family. In a recent letter a picture of our sponsored child and her mother was included. Or the option to at least view a family picture online.

PS at work we are able to opt out of paper copies, and select what paper copies we want.

If Compassion could do one thing differently…I would like them to come up with an innovative program/solution to meet the needs of kids who don’t receive correspondence from their sponsors.

I have absolutely no idea what that is…but I just think this is a problem that needs to be solved.

Perhaps a permanent team of volunteers, (similar to advocates), could write generic, colorful, Christ-filled encouraging letters. When a child hasn’t received a letter in a designated period of time, one of those could be sent? Just a letter that says “you are special, you are important, Christ loves you, so many people care about you…” Not necessarily signed by anyone.

I don’t know…this is just an issue I always come back to that bothers me.

I like a lot of the suggestions above. If I could have one thing different, I would like to receive letters from my sponsored children more frequently. I know that it would be difficult to implement and a lot of extra work on the project staff, but more frequent communication would help make it easier to build the sponsor-child relationship (and we sponsors need to do our part in writing, too).

This wasn’t part of the question, but I noticed Compassion has started doing something differently that I really appreciate. A few months ago I got a wonderful thank you voice mail after contributing to a special fund, and yesterday I got a nice hand-written thank you note for another donation. That really went above and beyond my expectations.

I have to agree with some of the above comments. I would like to have a yearly photo update along with a yearly update on the progress of my children in their projects and/or their family situation.

Family photos would be nice, too. Jeferson, a child who I used to sponsor, sent a family photo in his last letter to me. Receiving it made me feel closer to his family. I still have that picture after two and a half years. Even though I don’t sponsor Jeferson anymore, I will still take a look at his picture and pray for him and his family.

It would be nice to be able to send larger gifts through the mail, too.

On Lisa Miles’s comment, the main thing that I could think of would be that somewhere during the sign up process, it would be clearly communicated that sponsors are expected to write a minimum number of letters, otherwise a correspondent will be found for the child. That way Compassion would feel totally free to find correspondents for those children, who don’t get letters.

I agree with Lisa…that getting letters to children who never or rarely receive correspondence is a big concern. A generic “you are loved” type of card sounds like a good option. I am not sure what else can be done?

Perhaps I need to check into the program that needs people to correspond with one of these children who are being left out. When someone picks up the correspondence is the actual sponsor notified? How does it work? Can the corresponder send birthday and family gifts?

On a lighter note…I have noticed a Compassion Scrapbook in various places…but haven’t found it in the Compassion bookstore. I would love to purchase one. Could they be made available in the store?

I would like to know more about my child”s family: how many siblings and ages and such and if any others are involved in the program. I may ask in a letter, but my child doesn’t always respond to each question.

Lisa- One program for kids whose sponsors don’t write is to assign a correspondence sponsor, with the ok from the sponsor, who writes to the child. The child sees this person as their new sponsor. (I am a correspondence sponsor for a little boy in India)
This is not the first choice because it means a change for the child and the sponsor misses out on the gift of getting to know the child. But it is an option for those who truly cannot write.
I too get upset when I hear about kids who don’t write their kids. I would encourage you to talk to the sponsors you know, and encourage them to write to their kids. Some people have even had letter writing parties. There is a letter writing post from awhile back that had a bunch of good comments.

Amy- Some countries already do!! One of my children is from the Philippines, and I get letters in response to each of mine! It is really cool. From what I have heard, Compassion is working to get this system setup in all of the countries.

It would be nice if the info on the picture every other year were updated. I have sponsored my child for 9 years, and the same info is in the first one. There have been 2 more children added to the family since then!

Establish a sponsorship incentive (I believe Compassion Canada has one) : If a sponsor a Compassion Advocate gets 40 or more children sponsored in one year, he or she receives an opportunity to go on one of the sponsor or advocate Compassion tours.

It is a win-win situation on all levels, including the financial burden to the Compassion Ministry.

As an area coordinator with Compassion (and if I received a trip), I would then offer it to one of my advocates who I feel might be blessed by the experience and in hopes of igniting that passion within them.

Hi, I’m responding to Amanda’s questions(post #13). Yes, you can send your correspondence child or children birthday, family and christmas gifts. And you can also visist your correspondence child. I have checked with the compasssion representatives on this one.

I have just started writing to my second correspondence child. I called Compassion and asked about the sponsor. Without them breaking confidentiality they informed me the sponsor has 101 children. Hence, it is doubtful the sponsor will write or send gifts. It gave me a better understanding that some individuals or coporations may want to sponsor and just not feel comfortable writing. Yes, I realize they miss out on a great relationship, but they are still providing support.

I have also asked about the Compassion scrapbook and was told it was only for those who were setting up their own blog site back in Feb. 08. I, too would like to see it made available in the bookstore.

I agree with Susan Winton – I’d like to see more current information on the family situation.

My sponsored child mentioned her brother and mother in letters, but no one else. Then she just happened to mention “my father” – and I had been told the father was dead. It turns out the mom had married another man and had two more children by him – one who was 7, and one who was 3 – at the time I visited my child. I brought gifts for my child and her brother, not knowing about the others.

But I think sometimes the family may not give correct information, for whatever reason.

I have to agree with some of the above ideas. I’d love to send a doll or something bigger like that and I’d be totally willing to help pay the shipping for it!! I’ve read compassion only allows one child per family to be sponsered. Maybe they could change this especially with some families having so many children?

I called the 800 number and spoke with someone in sponsor services. I asked to be a correspondant and she said that she would add me to their waiting list. I was surprised that their was a list of people waiting to correspond to children. It may have been just “jargon” because I did receive a child packet shortly after and have begun writing to a 15 year old in Ethiopia. It is very exciting to get to know a new child and write to him. I was told I would also be able to send a gift to him, but I don’t see that option next to his name on my sponsor page. I am curious how long his sponsor hasn’t written to him, but of course I won’t bring that up. I was told that he would be told I was his new sponsor. If he true sponsor ends up writing to him, I don’t know what will happen!

Amy, you can call Compassion and speak to one of the sponsor donor specialists about it. As far as I know the only requirement is that you commit to writing at least once a month.

You can specify how many children you would like to correspond with and compassion will send you packets as they become available. When I signed up I said that I could write to two children but so far I have only gotten one. But it has definitely been a great experience.

I agee with Susan Winston that updated profile information available through the website would be very helpful, but perhaps involves too much work for staff.
I sponsor girls in India, Ecuador, and El Salvadore. The girl from India has “play house” and “jump rope” in her listed activities. She is 18, which makes me believe this is outdated.

Also, I was looking in the store the other day and saw that there were new items. It would be great if we could receive an email when or notification somehow that there were new items in the store. I don’t look over there much because it doesn’t change that often. BUT I was excited about the “Please” shirt written in Amharic-even blogged about it!

I would love to see Compassion establish a Youth Group event similar to World Vision’s 30 Hour Fast. Even as a Compassion Advocate, I was asked to organize this specific event at my church and when they understood that I was a trained Compassion Advocate, they looked seriously into changing the event to a Compassion themed event. However, since the 30 Hour Famine has a complete outline, resources and activity schedule for the event – church leadership went with that.

The 30 Hour Famine is designed for Youth 12 years and older. This leaves out the Jr. High. If Compassion could put together an event that would be open to both Jr. and Sr. High and reach out to the Youth to educate them on Extreme Poverty and the Global Food Crisis, Church Youth Leaders would grab at the chance to utilize it because it is not always easy to find planned, outlined events for the wide age ranges of Church Youth.

While I do understand that Compassion offers suggested activities for children and Youth, it is not the complete program like the 30HF.

I believe that compassion is doing a great job already but if there is a thing that could be different it should be : That we sponsors could send so now and then a small package gift instead of paper gift , and receive twice a year a picture of our sponsor child .
Also get a sponsor correspondent for kids who do not receive letters and a correspondence sponsor for the kids who do not have a sponsor yet to encourage them while whaiting for a sponsor .

This is in response to Richard’s comment, #26. Richard you can use your own manila envelopes to send 4×6 pics. The size can be anything up to 8×10. I don’t use the standard envelopes Compassions sends due to having coloring pages, and cards to send. Then I print off my own labels with Compassions address on it. Hope that helps you out.

I would also like to be able to send something more than 8 x 11 sized paper gifts. I have to search and search in toy stores and bookstores to find small books or paper items that my sponsored children might like that will fit in the required envelope. I’d love to be able to send them small gifts that I’ve seen in stores like little paint-by-number sets or small hardback storybooks or even a little T-shirt from the city where I live. I like the gifts I send to be special and personal and it’s so hard to find something like that that will fit in the envelope.

I just came from the Dominican Republic from the International Advocates Conference. It was an amazing time. Dr. Wess Stafford spoke to us. One thing he mentioned is that in the future, they hope to have it so that you can “chat” on line with your sponsored child, and not only that, but that you can also see him and not only that, but see the project and the home that he/she lives in. So, that might be in the near future.

At the DR conference, we all had an LDP student and a translator at our table for one evening during dinner. We had the chance to ask them anything we wanted.

On our table we had a girl, who was married and was about to finish up a degree in Business Administration. Her name was Regina. I asked her if she had access to the internet and if she had ever “googled” her sponsor. She mentioned that even though there was no way of checking up on it, that Compassion had asked them not to do that. So she had never done that. I was very impressed by her integrity and conscientiousness in all of this.

One of my children wrote me in a letter, asking me if I had received the photographs that she had emailed me. She had gone to a cybercafe. I never had gotten them, but I asked her to resend them via Compassion and suggested that we would keep the communication through Compassion. (I must say that I was touched by her reaching out that way to me )

My wife and I sponsore 3… No, now it’s 4 children in the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Honduras. We regularly receive photos from our boy in Honduras, pictures of birthday parties, standing with items purchased with out gifts, etc. We literally get to see him grow up. It would be nice if all the projects could send updated photos more frequently than semi-annually or even anually.

Hi Folks, I have been here at CI for 12 years and can shed some light …
Sara B.- Please call the phone center, we can reduce the duplicate mailings you are getting. Help us be good stewards of your giving and not send you unwanted mail. (be sure to have all 4 sponsor numbers handy when you call.Thanks (800-336-7676)
Amy Brooke- I have found that when I have specific questions for my child; if I list them concisely in one sentence, in a 1,2,3 format and highlight them, the translator has an easier time of being sure they are accurately translated. I think often questions are not answered because something is lost in the translation for the child.
Shelly, Amy and Sara B- The availability of correspondent children varies daily. One day there can be a 3 month wait and the next a corporation will sponsor 100 children and request correspondents for them all. This happened just recently, probably about the time Amy made her request. So the phone reps will tell you there may be a wait and that can change.
Amy- Yes, you can send your correspondent child a money gift but, no, you cannot do this through the web as you are not financially linked to the child. But you can use snail mail and mark the check as a child gift or call us and use a credit/debit card.
I too would love to send my child a doll but I realize if the purchase is made locally it benefits their economy; that is a very good thing! You would be surprised how many gifts are forwarded each month and the impact this can have on the small local economies. Our sponsors are SO generous!
Sara- Being a correspondent is a wonderful opportunity to encourage a child. You are not committing to write monthly, but we hope you will write 3-5 times per year. Taking one or two correspondent children can be a wonderful way to increase your ministry to children in need.
I love this blog, you are all SO engaged!There are some fabulous ideas here and we are listening.
Blessings to you all for taking the time to give this wondeful input.

I hadn’t thought of this, but you are right! The only thing is that I make handmade dolls and would love to make one for my kids and send it to them-telling them I made it for them. BUT as far as sending other gifts, I will remember what you said.

Instead of taking the sponsor’s correspondence rights away if they don’t write, perhaps Compassion could reserve the right to SUPPLEMENT the correspondence if necessary. Perhaps in the new-sponsor information Compassion could say something like this:

“At Compassion International, we consider correspondence between sponsor and child to be a vital part of our program.

We are committed to each child receiving a minimum of one piece of sponsor mail each year. If sponsor correspondence falls below this level, we reserve the right to supplement correspondence with volunteer-generated postcards and/or generic letters.

This is not designed to replace the sponsor/child correspondence, but prevents the child from feeling left out as other children in his or her program receive letters.”

I definitely like the idea of supplemental generic letters/cards. I would love to help do something like that.

I could really see youth groups, children groups, elderly, schools, etc. getting involved in something like that. Sort of like a service project-making a bunch of generic cards and mail to be sent to Compassion to be used for the children that do not get mail.

I like the idea of volunteers providing supplemental generic cards/letters.

I would love to help with this and could see church children and youth groups, families, elderly, school groups, etc. getting involved in something like this. It could be done as a service project for any of those groups.

I too like the idea of sending generic cards but nothing can replace contact from the sponsor. That is why I think it is so important for all of us to encourage other sponsors to write.

My grandmother has been a sponsor for many years and finds the idea of correspondence daunting. Recently compassion sent her a postcards to write a note to her child. She was so happy to get them and immediately sat down and wrote a quick note to each of her children.

Kudos to whoever is coming up with ideas to encourage sponsors to write. Keep up the good work!!

I would like Compassion’s website to have a message board feature where sponsors could get in touch with other sponsors who have children in the same projects. It would be neat to share information and experiences unique to each location. If a sponsor actually visits that project, he or she would be able to share the visit with others who have sponsored children there (and maybe even carry along gifts for the others or take pics of the kids!)

Hi Diantha,
To get a correspondent child please call the phone center at 800-336-7676, 7-5 MT. They can fix you right up. There are currently plenty of correspondent children available. You can probably request a country and age range (I recommend older kids for the best communication). The countries where you will get a response whenever you write (reciprocal letters) are Tanzania, Thailand, Peru, El Salvador and Ecuador. In other countries the children write 3 times per year. This is an evolving process.
Everyone, please give us a call, we would love to link you up with a correspondent child (or 2)to encourage.

Yikes..I’m back again-with a crazily good idea.
Everyone should remember when we helped the Kamrul the van driver in Bangaladesh get his own van-we wouldn’t have even known of his predicament if Compassion hadn’t posted his story.
My idea is this: Compassion should start posting a story like that every once in awhile,especially when there is extreme need. Then us,the blog readers,could decide to help should our Saviour lead us to.
The other idea is simular-maybe the great compassion writers could post the stories of children who need sponsors-the ones who’ve been waiting the longest or have the most extreme needs?? Hopefully there’s some non sponsors reading the blog and maybe the stories would touch their heart..Just an idea hoping maybe it’d get the children who’d been waiting the longest sponsors quicker??

I wish it was possible for Compassion to let sponsors know when their children are seriously ill–especially if they were listed as having no health problems when they were registered (and since the profile may not get updated more than every year or two). I’d love the opportunity to pray as specifically as possible for my child and his family, but with a 6-week delivery time for letters, I only just recently found out that he had been in the hospital (although he was back home).

I truly love Compassion’s ministry, but I have a few suggestions I hope will be considered:

A yearly photo and info update for the sponsored children. A child changes so much in two years!

Response letters from the child for every letter sent to them by the sponsor. I think this would really encourage sponsors to write more if they recieved more letters from their child!

Also, I want to have more information on my child’s family. I would love to know her siblings names and ages and more about her parents. Could this be included in the case study information? And possibly a yearly letter to the sponsor could be sent from the child’s project containing information about the family along with a family photo.

I hope you will stop and consider these suggestions! Thank you for all you do for children in poverty

When I was visiting one of my children in Bolivia, she got a letter from me on the same day and with the letter, she got a blank piece of stationary for her to answer my letter. Of course I was sitting right next to her! LOL BTW, she still answered my letter. I got the reply 3 months later!

I’m not sure what they will do with the suggestion on the yearly updates, but some of these might be great questions to ask in a letter.

You can also ask in the letter if the project has a camera and if they wouldn’t mind sending an other photo. I’ve done that and got several extra photos of the children.

I have one other question. I also have a fairly new child from Bolivia but she needs help from her tutor to write letters (I recieved a first letter from her). Will I still get a response for every letter I send to this child?

Wow. I can’t believe I never saw this, before, except that I was late getting home after the International Advocates Conference in October, and never had time to pick up what I’d missed.

Some quick thoughts on various suggestions:

1. Updates every year would be great, but–especially if they remain at every two years–I wish Compassion would go back to including more information in the update. In the first updates I received on my first two girls, I got new photos as well as information about how they were doing in school, at the project and at home. I’ve never received such information again, with one exception: From Tanzania I did receive an annual grade report on Tausi’s academic progress, until the past year. I always got them in January, but missed it, last time. Sorry–that wasn’t such a quick tho’t.

2. Bigger gifts for our kids would be fun, but in addition to the added costs of shipping, there’s the problem of getting the items through customs and to Compassion. They might be stolen or “lost.”

3. Call me a grinch, but I am not as excited as everyone else about sending generic cards to children whose sponsors don’t write, or haven’t written in too long a time. The children want so much to know their sponsors, and to get generic cards would be so impersonal, I’m skeptical about their meaning very much to the children. I could be wrong, but I thought I’d throw that in.

4. I’ve heard conflicting messages from people inside Compassion about the response-letter status. A year ago, and more, I had a list of 9 countries that were on the system; several months ago, I heard that *all* countries were now up and running. But I still get the standard 3 a year from Rwanda, and one of my two in DR does not write every time she gets something from me.

I think Compassion does the IMPOSSIBLE on a daily basis!!! It’s a GREAT thing they rely on God for it!!! But since you are asking…I think Advocates should be required to go on three Sponsor Tours a year all expenses paid!!! That way we could see more first-hand what Compassion is doing!!! But the option is always open I just need to take it!!! I am thankful to have been to Nicaragua and the Philippines here in a few months!!! At the end of the day I like the way Compassion operates b/c it is open-ended meaning almost anything is possible to be done, but an ENORMOUS amount of PRAYER, WORK, and HOPE and FIERCE BOLDNESS may be required to may make your DREAM become a REALITY!!! Nearly everthing I read on the posts can easily be done. If you want more letters from your child write more. The more I write the more letters I receive!!! I am probably causing others to get less b/c more are coming to me!!!!!!! I love the letters!!! But visiting has been the best!!! It was great to learn some things I did not know!!! Reading all the blogs is making me feel kind of being around Jesus!!! The people that asked Jesus to heal them He DID!!! I love the story about the boy who was thrown into convulsions by an evil spirit and his father talked to Jesus and Jesus said “You say to me ‘if you can,’ Everything is possible for Him who believes!!!” Jesus could have drained the Oceans dry if he wanted to!!! I need to start asking Him for more!!! Thanks to all the bloggers I continue to learn more and more about Compassion through your experiences, insight, and questions.

I Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for YOU!!!”

Wow, Mike, I love your enthuisiasm! Every advocate go on 3 all expense paid country visits…. Hmmm… I could go for that, but it might be a bit expensive for Compassion on the whole to do that… Also, that would work good for someone single like me, but it might be a little much for the married person, who is a profession with 10 vacation days…

Having said that, it would be very advantages for advocates to visit at least one of their children. It really is an education all by itself and it helps a lot in finding sponsors. I know once I visited some of the projects, it really made a huge difference in my advocacy.

Mike, I assume you are an advocate, right… Otherwise, I certainly think you would make a great advocate.

b) child updates would be done every year at least, instead of 2! Children change so much in 2 years

c) information provided on the children will become slightly more detailed. when I read information about my child, they all look like it is v similar to every other child!

d) i also agree with vicki that I’m not so keen on the idea of generic cards… I think what the kids really want aren’t really letters per se but knowing that someone (i.e. their sponsors) really cares about them and wants to invest both financially as well as emotionally in them! That they are of worth, both to God and to the people around them!